Sign up to get the daily edition in your inbox

Summaries Of The News:

In Southern California, if people haven't gone to Mexico for health care, they probably know someone who has.

The Desert Sun:
The Allure Of Cheap Doctors, Drugs And Dentists In Mexico
More than 6 million private vehicles (a number that excludes buses) entered Mexico from the U.S. in 2015, but border authorities aren't counting how many people in all of those cars and trucks are making the trip for medical reasons. ... People overburdened by the price of getting what's supposed to be some of the best health care in the world are willing to seek out options that would have seemed overly risky not long ago. And while more Americans now have health insurance than ever before, the high price of seeing a doctor, dentist or filling a prescription have not slowed the annual growth in the amount of money Americans spend on health care in foreign countries. (Newkirk, 10/20)

The Desert Sun:
Mexico Fills Health Needs For Many Latino Americans
Latinos, who make up a majority of people living in the eastern valley, rely more heavily on Mexican health services. With generally lower incomes, they see a greater benefit in Mexico's lower prices. They also use Mexico as a workaround to the shortage of primacy care doctors and dentists in the east Coachella Valley, and their cultural familiarity means there's no hesitation with seeing a doctor or dentist outside the U.S. The health care providers that do operate in the east valley know they can't compete with Mexico's prices, so they focus on convenience and their ability to work with U.S. insurance companies. Meanwhile, they say the Affordable Care Act appears to have had minimal effect on people choosing Mexico over local providers. (Newkirk, 10/20)

The Wall Street Journal:
Agony, Alarm And Anger For People Hurt By Theranos’s Botched Blood Tests
Sheri Ackert worried she might have a new tumor. Steve Hammons stopped taking his blood-thinning medication. Kimberly Toy emptied the pasta and sweets from her cupboards and said: “I can’t believe this happened.” What they have in common are dubious test results from Theranos Inc. A review of regulatory records and interviews with patients shows the Palo Alto, Calif., company didn’t just burn investors who bought into its promise to revolutionize the world of blood testing. (Weaver, 10/20)

"We are supporting candidates who we believe would best support our employees, our physicians and our patients in the communities we serve," Desert Regional spokesman Rich Ramhoff says.

The Desert Sun:
Tenet Picks Favorites In Health Care District Election
Tenet Healthcare Corp. is telling voters who it thinks they should pick to sit on the publicly-elected board overseeing the company's position running Desert Regional Medical Center. A flier paid for by Tenet landed in mailboxes this week and recommended incumbent Mark Matthews for the Desert Healthcare District board along with retired physician Les Zendle and hospital executive Donald Lorack for two open seats. (Newkirk, 10/20)

Law enforcement officials say attempts to curtail prescription drug abuse have caused some people to turn to heroin, which can be cheaper and easier to obtain.

KPBS Public Media:
Prescription Drug Abuse Continues To Take Toll In San Diego
The county's 2016 Prescription Drug Abuse Report Card shows 248 people died last year from an overdose. Compared to the previous year, the number of people who were treated in an emergency room for problems with prescription painkillers rose by 20 percent. Law enforcement officials said more and more of the prescription narcotics sold on the street are laced with dangerous drugs like fentanyl. (Goldberg, 10/20)

The San Diego Union-Tribune:
Prescription-Drug Abuse Still High In San Diego County
San Diego County’s public-health and law-enforcement leaders have focused intensely on fighting prescription-drug abuse in recent years, from promoting places to safely drop off unwanted medications to increasing access to treatment programs. Despite those efforts, a report released Thursday said the number of prescription-drug-related deaths increased slightly — to 248 cases — last year. The county’s annual Prescription Drug Abuse Report Card also found that painkiller use among 11th-graders rose a bit in the same year. (Sisson, 10/20)

Meanwhile, in other news on the crisis —

Orange County Register:
Westminster Doctor Accused Of Negligence In 4 Drug Overdose Deaths
A Westminster doctor faces possible discipline by the state Medical Board for allegedly excessively prescribing addictive drugs to four patients who died of overdoses, according to legal documents made public this week. Dr. Doanh Andrew Nguyen is accused of gross negligence, excessive prescribing, prescribing to addicts and incompetence. Through an office assistant, Nguyen declined to comment Thursday. The documents say that between 2005 and 2012, Nguyen excessively prescribed drugs, including opiate painkillers and anxiety medication, to four unidentified patients who all died under his care. Three of the patients were also receiving controlled substances from other doctors, the documents say. (Perkes, 10/20)

The American Academy of Pediatrics has released its recommendations for how much children and teenagers should be exposed to TVs, computers and smartphones.

Los Angeles Times:
Pediatricians Weigh In On A Fraught Issue Facing Parents Today: How Much Screen Time Is OK?
If you have kids or teenagers at home, chances are you have a complicated relationship with screens. On one hand, you know that capturing monsters in Pokemon Go or taking a portal to the Nether in Minecraft is probably not the healthiest way for your kids to spend the afternoon. On the other hand, they are so happy and quiet when they are bathed in the glow of a smartphone, tablet or TV. And some of those apps and shows have educational value, right? What if your child is tracing letters or learning to count? Can screen time ever be beneficial? (Netburn, 10/20)

The lawsuits target both cities that run their own ambulance services, as well as cities that have exclusive contracts with competing private companies.

Orange County Register:
A Dozen O.C. Cities Face Lawsuits Over Alleged Ambulance Monopolies
A local ambulance company’s legal battle against what it contends are illegal emergency-service monopolies has expanded to a dozen Orange County cities.In a series of complaints filed over the past month, attorneys for AmeriCare MedServices have demanded jury trials involving a wide swath of local cities, attempting to push municipal officials to open up competitive bidding for ambulance services. Several of the lawsuits target competing CARE Ambulance Services, listing it a co-defendant and alleging that the company “conspired” with the cities to “monopolize the market and exclude other providers.” (Emery, 10/20)

In other news from across the state —

KPBS Public Media:
Toxic Plume In El Cajon Reaches Beneath Mobile Home Park
State and county officials have long had a map that shows an underground plume of the toxic chemical trichloroethylene (TCE) stretching from a former aerospace firm in El Cajon for more than a mile toward the county airport, Gillespie Field. An area of high concentration runs beneath a K-5 school, Magnolia Elementary. But the map also shows the plume flows beneath manufactured homes in a mobile home park adjacent to the school. No action and little testing have taken place there — until now. (Lobet, 10/20)

Orange County Register:
Fountain Valley Doctor Accused Of Sexual Misconduct
A Fountain Valley doctor faces possible state Medical Board discipline for alleged sexual misconduct toward a female patient, according to legal documents made public this week. Dr. Arfa Babaknia, who practices family medicine, is accused of “sexual abuse and/or misconduct” stemming from a 2015 visit with a patient who sought treatment for a urinary tract infection. The documents say that Babaknia examined the patient without anyone else in the room and touched her genitals without a medical reason to do so. (Perkes, 10/20)

The president spoke of the law's successes while also urging lawmakers and governors to make the changes necessary to make it better. "When one of these companies comes out with a new smartphone and it had a few bugs, what do they do? They fix it," he said. "You don’t say, well, we're repealing smartphones."

The Associated Press:
Obama: Health Care Law Worked, But Improvements Needed
President Barack Obama on Thursday defended his namesake health care program, long a target of Republicans and recently criticized by some Democrats, saying millions of Americans "now know the financial security of health insurance" because of the Affordable Care Act. "It's worked," he said, even while allowing that the program isn't perfect. "No law is." (Superville, 10/20)

The New York Times:
Trump Said Women Get Abortions Days Before Birth. Doctors Say They Don’t.
In the presidential debate Wednesday night, Donald J. Trump expounded on pregnancy and abortion, asserting that under current abortion law, “You can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month, on the final day.” Doctors say the scenario Mr. Trump described does not occur. “That is not happening in the United States,” said Dr. Aaron B. Caughey, chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at Oregon Health and Science University. “It is, of course, such an absurd thing to say,” he said. (Belluck, 10/20)

The New York Times:
E.P.A. Waited Too Long To Warn Of Flint Water Danger, Report Says
In a pointed rebuke to the Environmental Protection Agency, an internal watchdog concluded on Thursday that the agency should have acted more swiftly to warn residents of Flint, Mich., that their water was contaminated with lead. The report, issued by Arthur A. Elkins Jr., the inspector general for the E.P.A., blamed the federal government for inaction in Flint, echoing the sentiments of many Republicans who have said for more than a year that the agency failed in its oversight role. (Bosman, 10/20)

The Associated Press:
Lawmakers Demand Answers On Leukemia Drug Price Hikes
Two top lawmakers on Thursday demanded information from a drug company that has raised prices on a leukemia drug, calling increases of tens of thousands of dollars a sign the company puts profits before patients. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wrote ARIAD Pharmaceuticals and asked about price hikes for Iclusig, which is used to treat chronic myeloid leukemia in some people. (10/20)

A selection of opinions on California's ballot initiatives and other health care developments from around the state.

Los Angeles Times:
A Yes Vote On Proposition 61 Will Send A Strong Message To Big Pharma And Washington
Prescription drug prices in the United States are the highest in the world — by far. Californians on Nov. 8 have a chance to stand up to the pharmaceutical industry’s greed and spark a national movement to end this price-gouging. Today, no laws prevent drug companies from doubling or tripling prices. So they just do it. The most recent flagrant example is the emergency allergy injection, EpiPen. Its maker, Mylan, jacked up the price of this 40-year-old medication by 461% between 2007 and 2015. During that same period, compensation for Mylan’s CEO rose 671%. And that’s just one company and one drug. (Bernie Sanders, 10/21)

Sacramento Bee:
A High-Stakes Game Of Chicken On Drug Prices
California’s state government spends about $4 billion a year on prescription drugs – for low-income people in the Medi-Cal program, as well as state employees, retirees and prison inmates. Shouldn’t taxpayers be getting the best deal possible for their money? (Daniel Weintraub, 10/17)

Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
Thumbs Up: Yes On Prop 52
In order for California to receive federal Medicaid funds, which are distributed through the Medi-Cal program, the state needs to provide matching funds. To do that, the state set up a program seven years ago that charges all California hospitals a fee to raise money for those matching funds. As a result, hospitals receive more than $3 billion a year in federal funds to provide Medi-Cal services to more than 13 million Californians. It’s worked well. But the state also is guilty of using funds from the hospital fee program for general fund expenditures. Proposition 52 would extend the hospital fee program indefinitely and would require voter approval to divert the money for other purposes. (10/18)

Los Angeles Times:
The Tobacco Industry's Strategy To Kill A New Statewide Cigarette Tax: Blow A Lot Of Smoke
The cigarette makers are bellyaching about the “wealthy special interests” — doctors, dentists, hospitals, health insurers — who are trying to “tax grab” on the Nov. 8 ballot. What’s being grabbed, of course, is a hefty tax hike on tobacco products. Proposition 56 would increase the cigarette tax by $2 per pack. All other tobacco products, including nicotine-laced electronic cigarettes, would get equivalent tax boosts. (George Skelton, 10/20)

The Bakersfield Californian:
How Measure J Can Improve Kern's Health
We have a decision to make. We can choose to accept the dismal health status of Kern County or we can choose a healthier future. Today, Kern County’s health ranks 52nd of 57 California counties where data is available. We can do better...We have an opportunity to begin this change on Nov. 8. We can vote Yes on Measure J, which will help rebuild and modernize the Kern Community College District campuses including Bakersfield College. Voting Yes on Measure J has the potential to transform our region and create a tipping point for generations to come. Here is how your vote will make a difference. (David Womack, 10/18)

Los Angeles Times:
Zombie Marketing: Selling Health Insurance To The Dead
Being dead hasn’t stopped Martin Siegel from being a solid insurance prospect. Siegel, who died in 2002, would have turned 65 this year. As such, he’s received solicitations from UnitedHealthcare, Kaiser Permanente and other insurers trying to sign him up for Medicare Advantage plans. “It’s just about every insurance company you can think of,” said Geri Siegel, his widow. (David Lazarus, 10/18)

The Mercury News:
Veterans Suicide Hotline Disaster Is Appalling
The Department of Veterans Affairs admits a suicide hotline it runs is failing to answer the phone. How can that be, when about 20 veterans commit suicide every day? Fix it. Now. The former director of the Veterans Crisis Line told The Associated Press that an average of 35 to 40 percent of the calls in May went unanswered by the crisis-trained health science specialists at its Canandaigua, New York location. The calls rolled to backup centers run by a contractor and staffed by workers, sometimes volunteers, who lack specialized training. (10/14)

Orange County Register:
A Bailout Californians Can't Afford
California taxpayers, beware. The federal government is quietly implementing a massive taxpayer-funded bailout for special interests. Not only that, this bailout will allow the Affordable Care Act to continue wreaking havoc in your state for years to come. So which special interests are getting your money? Health insurance companies. (Nathan Nascimento, 10/20)

Los Angeles Times:
UCI'S Patients, And Workers, Deserve Better
Since the Affordable Care Act came online, 20 million more Americans have access to healthcare, including a million more Californians. For healthcare providers like UC Irvine Medical Center, this means more customers. In fact, according to its last financial report, UCIMC has seen substantial increases in both patient admissions and outpatient visits over the past year. But instead of investing in the proper staffing it needs to deliver quality care to more people, UCI is moving in the opposite direction. (Kathryn Lybarger, 10/14)